first smile
What an eventful weekend. It was marked by excessive crying, and his first smile.

First, the smile. In between bouts of fussiness and general unhappiness, he smiled at his daddy. Jerry was holding him up, sticking his tongue out over and over again while making funny tongue noises. The baby was staring intently at this. (For the first two weeks, they don't stare much at anything because their eyesight isn't really developed. He just recently started staring at things.) After watching his dad for some time, he let out a big, satisfied smile. Jerry told everyone to come (we were at my mom's house) and after we gathered around, he gave his dad a few more big, bright, gummy smiles. These were not the same smiles he gives us when he has gas. They were true smiles with eye contact and all. We have witnesses.

Later his uncle Bob (my brother) stuck his tongue out over and over, but without the sound effects. Evan slowly started to stick his tongue out, and had this look on his face like Bob was the most amazing person in the world (after his mom and dad, of course). It was so cute.

These cute moments were sandwiched in between fussy ones. Saturday was pretty bad... he cried except when sleeping and eating. Sunday was worse. He was not interested in eating or sleeping, and he was either screaming bloody murder or else fussy-type crying. We were so frustrated and sad for him. He seemed to be in pain and exhausted. Whenever he fell asleep for a few minutes, he would wake up, spit up, and then cry. He seemed to have intestinal upset.

Today I took him to the pediatrician and he suspects the baby has an allergy to milk protein from my milk. So I have to go off dairy products for five days and then return to the doctor to see if he has improved. He either has colic (another word for your baby cries a lot and we don't know why) or else he has this allergy. Although I don't want to give up milk, I hope that this is the problem because that means the problem is solvable.

Currently he is sleeping and making the occasional grunting noise. Have I mentioned this is the most boyish baby I have ever seen? I don't think anyone will be confused by his gender.